Marcus Pickerington Cinema — Attraction in Violet Township

I came to the Marcus theater with my husband, our toddler, and some friends who also had their toddler and teenage children with them. Our daughter was actually enjoying herself and doing well for her second movie. Every once in a while, she would say a word, and we would immediately remind her to be quiet. About halfway through, staff approached my husband, stating there had been complaints, and asked if we could take her out into the hallway if she became noisy. We were confused since she hadn’t been upset at all. In fact, my nephew (also two) had gotten upset briefly but calmed down quickly.

What struck us as excessive was that the staff member brought along two large security guards, as though we posed a threat. My husband quietly told our daughter she needed to stay quiet or we would have to leave, which upset her for the first time all evening. I gathered her things and took her to the hallway, just as requested. While I was calming her on a bench, a blonde woman who had complained walked by smirking. Immediately after, the same staff member and two guards came storming up the hallway, laughing about “just telling us” moments earlier. They then told us we should get a refund and leave because we were “ruining the movie.”

We complied without argument, saying we were fine with a refund but needed to change our daughter’s diaper first. The guards followed us to the restroom and then escorted us out of the building in front of everyone. At no point did we raise our voices, argue, or cause a disruption. Our friends were shocked when we explained what happened afterward, as they said both toddlers were very well behaved and agreed their child had made more noise than ours.

As an educator, I find this deeply troubling. Raising children means teaching them how to function in public spaces. Our daughter was calm, engaged, and only became upset for a brief moment—at which point we did exactly what was asked of us. Yet she ended up crying in the car, apologizing repeatedly, saying “me sorry, I be good,” even though she had been good. This sends the wrong message to children and parents alike. We want children to control there emotions but literal adults can not.

Additionally, we noticed an inconsistency at the ticket counter. We were charged for our toddler’s ticket while our friends, whose child is the same age, were not.

Overall, this experience was humiliating, confusing, and unnecessarily harsh. We complied with every request, yet were treated like we were causing a scene. I hope the theater will reflect on how families are treated in situations like this, because tonight we were made to feel like criminals simply for bringing our child to a family movie. This is not a child friendly theater if you enjoy over priced tickets, cold popcorn, butt heaters that turn on if you accidently nudge it, chairs that move whenever they feel like it, blurry screens, people bullying toddlers, and being harassed this is the...

I am a serial positive rating giver! And this deserves NO good ratings! From the minute we (my fiance and I) walked through the door we received terrible service. There were 2 desks to purchase tickets. One with a line of 7 people and the other desk had 2 employees behind it. We walked to that desk for them to stare at us for 3 minutes before chuckling and saying "oh were folding boxes, you have to go over there" ... so we get in line behind the group of seven people. We get out tickets after 10 minutes of waiting and spent 29$ on two seats to a 10:40 movie. We walk to the in house bar to order a drink before finding our seats. We waited for almost 20 minutes while the one bartender tried to service everyone, having to call the manager twice to handle complaints in the meantime. As he was finally making our drinks I over hear a man who had ordered a wrap 45 minutes prior. It had been sent to the bar by mistake, which the bartender contested, and was supposed to have been sent to him in the theater and never made it there. The managers only response was "I'm sorry sir we shut everything down already so we will have to give you a refund. This was ironic because only 30 seconds before this man came to inquire about his food did I hear the kitchen staff announce that he was shutting the kitchen down. We got our drinks and went to our seats only to have the lights left on for the entire film which ran for almost 3 hours. Therefore ruining my entire movie experience. The bathrooms were disgusting and they had even shut down the soda and popcorn before 90% of the movies were concluded for the evening. I'm not sure how they are even in business. I watched them throw away so many opportunities to service their customers and profit for their company. As a manager of over 16 years in retail I give them ten thumbs down!! Waste of the...

Been going to this movie theater since I was little. It’s the worst. Here’s my two worst experiences.

Came here when I was 5 to see a movie with my parents. In the middle of the movie I had appendicitis. I was throwing up everywhere because I was 5 and literally dying, and they called security on me and told me I had to either leave, or pay them money for an empty popcorn bucket to throw up in. I left obviously, not because they asked, but because if I didn’t go to a hospital, I would have died on their floors and I wouldn’t be here to write this review.

My second worst experience was recently. I brought refillable cups so I wouldn’t have to pay for drinks, and the manager told my brother not to fill his. I hadn’t heard their conversation, and I wasn’t near them at all when they spoke of it. So of course I had no knowledge of this rule when I filled his cup. The manager left the concessions to stand less than a foot away from me while scolding me like a child (which for context was wildly inappropriate for a 30 year old man to do to a 19 year old girl). I dumped the drink as told, and asked if they had any paper towels so I didn’t get soda all over my jacket and shirt. He said no, so I said thanks sarcastically and walked away.

He wasn’t satisfied enough as it seems, considering he called security and forced me and my brother to walk back to him so he could scold us once again like children.

All in all, sad movie theater. Everything is overpriced, the theaters aren’t clean and security only wants to do their job when it’s to bother people minding their own businesses. I hope the manager here grows out of his weird superiority complex and stops holding his status over customers. It’s immature and inappropriate for...